National Savings and Investments (NS&I) are removing the notice period required on withdrawals from its Income Bond account.
At present, customers need to give six weeks notice to cash in Income Bonds without penalty, otherwise they incur a fee equal to six weeks interest on the amount drawn. From the 15th August 2005, customers will be able to have access to their funds in around three working days.
In June 2004, NS&I reduced the notice period for withdrawals from Income Bonds, from 90 days to six weeks, and it believes that the changes will make the bonds more accessible to its customers and bring them in line with the rest of its products.
Our view
National Savings has to compete with the flexibility that other financial companies offer - this is just one move in a series that we expect.